Highbridge
by Cherry Flavored
Summary: Heero, under J's orders, isolates himself from the others and hides in a ritzy school in New Zealand. He contacts Relena right when everyone is suddenly needed- an African ambassor was killed, and the Preventors need all of the pilots to ward off disaster
1. The Message

Highbridge  
  
By Cherry Flavored   
  
All standard disclaimers apply: Don't own; just want and surely love  
  
Part One- The Message  
~~~~  
March, AC 197  
  
A peculiar old man sat alone in a dark room, lit only by the computer he was typing on. He wasn't used to searching the internet for what he was currently looking for, but just the same, he found the information he desired. Funny thing, about the internet, you can do almost anything. Anyone can find what they need, no matter how strange the object of desire was. In the old man's case, he wanted a school. The old man obviously wasn't considering admission for himself, but just the same, he wanted to know everything about it. Was this school in a good location? Did it have a good reputation? Were the academic and athletic programs high quality? In this particular case and the particular school the man found, all of these answers proved positively. Only the best for his boy, right?   
  
The boy… the boy deserved something different, something very different from the life he had given him.   
  
"Plus, that kid needs something to occupy his time. From what I hear, the only thing he's accomplished in this time of peace was sharpening his already excellent brooding skills," the man said to himself with a chuckle. "I just hope he can manage living such a luxurious life!"  
  
Within an hour, the man had composed an encrypted email with strict instructions, and clicked the 'send' button. The email had set its course, and within seconds arrived at its destination…  
  
~~~~  
  
A serious-looking young man sat alone in a dark room, lit only by the laptop he was typing on. He heard a noise come from his computer, to alert him that he had a message. The boy checked it promptly, as usual.  
  
Message sent March 4  
197  
Message from user L1J  
To user L101  
  
01:  
You have a new mission. It deals with what you plan to do with your life. You have three choices: (a) Kill yourself, (b) start a faction that could bring about more conflict, or (c) go to school and live a normal life… that is, unless we need you again. If you choose the first one, farewell; I'll pray that you don't burn in hell. If you choose the second, well, I think I'll have to say the same as before, because you'll end up getting shot anyway. If you decide on the third choice, you have a spot waiting for you at the Highbridge Academy in Auckland. The administration won't ask questions there; I've spoken with their headmistress, who was an old… friend of mine. Give them the code '6974' and they'll know who you are. Also, I would hope that you would think to use a new name, since 'Heero Yuy' has recently become famous for saving the world. By the way, congratulations on that.  
  
Signing off,  
J   
Heero sat at his desk pondering the situation. Well, the second option was out, for obvious reasons. Heero knew that he would rather die a thousand times before he shattered the peace, and Dr. J knew that too. So it was down to two choices, but Heero didn't have to think that hard on them. He just… had a few things to live for now, so that third choice sounded pretty good. He really only had one question on his mind now.  
  
"Where the hell is Auckland?" he said aloud.   
  
Heero had learned so much geography in his time it was amazing, but for some reason, he couldn't put his finger on where it was. England? No, he'd been to Britain too many times to not know everything about it. Australia? Wait…  
  
"Dr. J wants me to go to New Zealand?" He quickly searched in on his computer, and sure enough, there was Auckland, in the northern part of New Zealand.  
  
"Well… I guess I better go…" he said as he started making arrangements.  
  
~~~~  
  
May AC 197  
Heero pulled his car over on a sidewalk parking space right in the front of his new academy and got out of the vehicle. From his limited viewpoint, Heero only saw a couple of very elegant willow trees planted on a well-cut lawn. He walked forward slightly so he could get a better look at the building that supposedly lay before him, but stopped in his tracks the second he saw it. It was… huge. It defiantly outmatched St. Gabriel's. He couldn't believe that he was actually going to stay at this place for quite a while. The only other building he had frequented that was this majestic was the palace at the Cinq Kingdom.  
  
Heero stopped a moment to think about that place. It was such a beautiful land with so much to offer… and now it's returned to the flames that consumed once before.  
  
"She could have done it… she could have kept that country alive… If only the whole world was more like her," Heero said as his stare moved from the colossal building to the incredible sky. He let a small smile crawl up his face.  
  
He slung his small bag over his shoulder and walked towards the student admission office. His smile faded as walked onwards.  
  
"If only I was more like her…"  
  
~~~~  
  
*In space, on a new lunar research base*  
"Hmm, I wonder what this is?" said a young woman, eyeing a message waiting for her on her vidscreen.   
  
The dark haired beauty reached up and touched a few buttons on the machine. The screen was filled with the face of a stern-looking blond woman.  
  
"Fire, this is water. Connect on a secure line to HQ before the end of the day," the woman said as the recording cut off.  
  
"I know what that's about…"   
  
The dark-haired woman turned to see a tall, handsome man leaning in the doorway. Although he was covered in shadows, his long, platinum-colored hair gave his identity away.  
  
"Care to elaborate, Zechs?" she asked with a smile.  
  
"Well, don't get your hopes up, but I think that our project might be moving for awhile."  
  
"Where to?" she asked with a sudden spark of interest.  
  
"Noin, Sally told me that we're…" Zechs tried to hide it, but his stern expression couldn't keep for much longer. "Well, the Terra Formation project is… moving to the Earth."  
  
The smile on Noin's face quickly rose into an ear to ear grin. "The Earth! After being trapped in this stupid base for months! Oh Zechs, this is great!"   
  
Noin, not being able to contain herself for any longer, ran up to Zechs and almost toppled him over in a hug. Zechs couldn't keep from laughing.  
  
"Lieutenant, call Sally already."  
  
"Yes sir!"   
  
~~~~  
  
"Well, Mr. Yuy, it's an honor to have you at our institution," beamed the headmistress at Heero. "You are aware that your identity must be changed, though."  
  
"Yeah, J said I needed one, but I'm not sure what to use. I was wondering if you could help me choose a name that's common here, Mrs. Julius," Heero said.  
  
"Well, we can't hide that fact that you're Asian, nor do we want to… you're from Japan, right?" she asked in thought.  
  
"Well, I guess I can assume my family was from there."  
  
"Okay then, your last name will be Japanese but your first will be English," she said.  
  
Mrs. Julius stood wrapped in thought. Heero waited until her face perked up.  
  
"Adam… Adam Yurigashi," she said.  
  
"Fine. I'll be going then," he said, adding, "Thanks for the help."  
  
Heero left the office of Cynthia Julius and headed for his first class at Highbridge.  
  
~~~~  
As for what could be expected out of Heero Yuy, he spent his first week at Highbridge totally bored. Well, he would never truly admit that to himself, of course. He paid strict attention in every class, even though he practically knew what the teacher would say before it came out of his or her mouth. He was incredibly intelligent, so he had no problems. In gym, he ignored the open mouths of the basketball team when they saw that some short Japanese kid could wipe the floor with them. He was an outsider, though, but that's the way he wanted it. If someone came to speak to him, he would answer politely and walk away. It's just like how it was when he was hiding out during the war, with one exception. There was no war for him to fight! No mission, no destination, not even a …distraction. There was nothing for him to do. Heero soon felt completely trapped. He knew better than to skip out of school, because he would have no where to go. Plus, he had to stay away from the rest of the world, according to J.   
  
But, even after only one week, Heero knew that he had had enough.   
  
Heero was just arriving home from school on day when he got an idea. He couldn't leave, but he knew what he could do to make himself feel better. He had to let someone know where he was… or at least that he was alive.  
  
So, he walked into his dark room and started up his laptop, so that it illuminated the walls with the only light…  
  
~~~~  
A striking young woman sat in her dark bedroom, lit only by the light of her television internet monitor. She let out an exasperated sigh as she gave instructions into her electronic voice command headset for the computer.  
  
"Command: down. Command: down. Command: open," she said, scrolling down her list of emails with a very bored look on her face. She looked at the message she just opened. Normal business information, so she closed it. She was going to deal with that the next day, when she wasn't so tired.   
  
"Where is that email?" she asked, frustrated. She was about to get really mad at a certain Preventors agent who was supposed to have sent her a message an hour ago. She had gotten about forty new messages since she checked it last, so it could be anywhere.   
  
Suddenly, her facial expression changed from annoyance to curiosity as she spotted a strange email with no subject.   
  
"…huh? User 'L101'? Oh my goodness…" she gasped in sudden realization. She looked upwards, at no point in particular.  
  
"God, if you're just messing with my head right now, I'm turning atheist!"  
  
The woman looked back at the email. Her hands were shaking as she reached to push the headset microphone closer to her lips.  
  
"Command: open…"  
  
Message sent May 15  
197  
Message from user L101  
To user VFMdarlian  
  
Relena:  
  
I'm in Auckland, New Zealand. Just thought you might want to know.  
  
01  
Relena Darlian closed the window and shut her monitor down, still in total awe. She walked to her bed and laid down on it, her movements zombie-like.  
  
As she stopped to think about what just happened, she squeaked out a faint "Um… thank you, God."  
  
~End of part one  
  
Email comments to inrose@aminorglitch.com 


	2. Sneaking Away and Meeting Dule

Highbridge   
  
By Cherry Flavored  
  
Disclamer: don't own  
  
Part Two- Sneaking Away and Meeting Dule   
~~~~  
"Has Relena emailed you back yet?" Noin asked Zechs.  
  
"No, of course not. I mean, I did send it late, but wouldn't she think to check again?" he said in an annoyed tone.  
  
"Well, that's your fault, isn't it?" Noin asked with a smile at the man. "Anyway, we'll see her hopefully in about two days, won't we?"  
  
"Hopefully…" Zechs said.  
  
"Hope is a good sign! Don't think we're not leaving here, because I can feel it."  
  
"I know… I just want to know what's going on with my sister. I haven't heard from her in about three weeks because of this isolation thing. She's only been speaking through emails. That's another one of those things that I don't like about being in space on a mission- no speaking to non-Preventors on vidphone or even audphone. She's one of the most powerful people in the universe, though! Why can't I be in contact with her?"  
  
"Like I said, Zechs, we're leaving."  
  
"Yeah well, Sally better hurry up with those arrangements."  
  
~~~~  
Heero sat alone on one of the benches that sit beneath all of the trees at Highbridge. He looked out on the expansive lawn, seeing the many students all across it doing various activities. It was a very simple scene. It could easily make someone forget his surroundings, which is what Heero accidentally let happen to him. That is why he didn't notice the sound of footsteps coming up behind him.  
  
"Um… excuse me," said a voice.  
  
Heero turned around to see a happy young man looking down at him. Heero assumed he wanted him to move, so Heero stood up (since the war, Heero was making an attempt to not make waves, and even though it was not in his nature to move for someone, he's learned to get over it).  
  
"No, wait, I wanted to ask you something, actually," the boy said.  
  
Heero stopped and faced him. "How can I help you?"  
  
"Well, first, my name is Yume. Yume Stratton. I was just wondering about you. Well, I mean, you're Asian. Well, what I mean is, I am too, and we don't exactly have a lot of those here. I just wanted to know where you came from. I mean, where you're name came from," he stuttered.  
  
Heero smirked at the kid. "Japan. But I was born and raised on the colonies. I've only been to Japan once, actually," he said politely.  
  
"Really? I'm Japanese, too… or half, actually. My mother moved to Wellington and married a doctor there. Anyway, what's your name?"  
  
"Adam…" Heero said, not completely used to saying the name. "Adam Yurigashi… I transferred here from my last school in the Cinq Kingdom."  
  
"Wow… you really went to the Cinq School? So you haven't been in school for awhile… Hey, wasn't Cinq just for girls?" Yume said with a skeptical smirk.  
  
Heero almost smiled. Almost. It's true; most of the students there were girls, so Heero could understand Yume doubting his truthfulness. "Actually, it was open to anyone, but the political leaders sent their daughters there because people generally think women are more inclined to understand the ideals of total pacifism. But, as I found out, there are females that love war just as much as men do," Heero thought for a moment. Why was he telling this kid everything he knows? Heero didn't realize it, but he really missed talking about politics and war. It was a part of him, and he couldn't just be thrown into a normal life and expect to forget it. He also missed the Cinq Kingdom, but there was absolutely no way to rationalize that subject.  
  
"Anyway," Heero started, changing the subject, "What year are you in, Yume?"  
  
"11th. You are too, right?" Yume asked. Heero nodded. "Oh yeah! We have to go to class, don't we?"  
  
"Yeah," Heero said, picking up his bag from the ground.  
  
"I'll talk to you later, okay?" Yume called as he retreated back towards the main building.  
  
Heero nodded again. He was kind of surprised that he actually had a conversation with someone. He thought about it a second more, and then walked off towards classes.  
  
~~~  
When Heero arrived at his dormitory room he immediately flipped on his laptop. While he waited for it to start up, he went and fixed some coffee. He returned to his desk and brought up all of his messages for the day. Normally he first checked his new school email address for assignments or bulletins pertaining to Highbridge. But this time he went straight to his secured line address, L101. He has only one message, which he opened up.  
  
Message sent May 16  
197   
Message from user VFMdarlian  
To user L101  
  
Heero:  
  
You're right, I did want to know. Are you enrolled anywhere?   
  
Relena  
Heero sipped his coffee. He clicked the button labeled "Reply" and began typing.  
  
That night, although it is not a scientific fact, it is believed that Heero slept easier after reading that message.   
  
~~~  
Relena wrung her hands together. She had been sitting in a meeting for two hours straight and she still hadn't said a word yet. She was getting tired of being at the weekend-long conference she was attending in Nairobi. She knew that her work was important, but she didn't like the idea of touring an old OZ base during the conference- and she especially didn't like that it was the one that her brother and Noin used be stationed at. Of course, she wouldn't be there the whole time; many of the meetings would be in the traditional hotel-type places. But the very idea of being at the same place where so many OZ soldiers trained made her uneasy. Not to mention, she didn't like that the base was being rebuilt, even if it was for "educational" and "historical" purposes.  
  
Why exactly had Noin and Milliardo been so adamant about Relena coming to this particular conference? Relena figured it was because they wanted her to see the place that they spent so much of their young adult years. She didn't know, and she really wanted to get back to her room.   
  
That was the other thing Relena was thinking about. She had an email to read, hopefully, when she got back to her room. She felt guilty, almost, about not paying attention in the meeting, but it was getting very tedious, and she was still puzzling over why Heero had decided to contact her. She had a very strange feeling when ever she considered the possibilities. She also got a very strange lump in her throat… and she also constantly wrung her hands.  
  
All of Relena's thoughts, however, were ended with the loud clapping that began to erupt from the attendees of the meeting. As they stood up, she realized that the meeting was over, and she stood politely as well and clapped.  
  
Once she was dismissed, she gathered her things and headed to the far exit of the conference room. She was incredibly tired and wanted to avoid any questions from others. She pushed open the door to see three faces smiling at her.  
  
"See guys, I told you she'd be coming out this one," said Sally with a knowing look.   
  
Relena's face lit up at the sight of Lucrezia Noin, Milliardo Peacecraft, and Sally Po.   
  
"Oh! Noin, Brother, it's so good to see you! Sally, you too!" she said as she reached to hug Noin.  
  
"We just got back. That's why we told you to come here, so we could meet up. The shuttles only ran to three places, and with that to choose from, we picked the Africa stop because there were none close to home. You surprised?" Noin said.  
  
"Yes, very, and also pleased!" Relena said with a smile.  
  
"Well, we hoped that you wouldn't mind skipping the rest of the conference so we could go home," Milliardo sighed.  
  
"No problem! We can leave tonight," Relena quickly told him, anxious to leave. The group turned to head up to Relena's room.  
  
When Relena grabbed her tote bag to leave, she remembered something: her laptop was slipped inside the bag. That meant she could dodge the others and head to some other place than her hotel suite to get online, where her brother could be peering over her shoulder. The last thing she wanted to do was let a top Preventor know where Heero was!  
  
"Hey guys? Um, I just remembered I had something I forgot to do in the meeting. I meant to ask one of the representatives a question. Do you think I could catch up with you guys later?" she fibbed. "Here's the key, room 117," she said as she grabbed a thin keycard out of her bag and handed it to Sally. She quickly rushed off then, without giving the others a chance to object.  
  
"That was… weird," Noin said.  
  
"I agree…" Milliardo said.  
  
~~~  
Relena found and empty conference room and pulled up a chair to the massive meeting table. She slid the computer onto the wooden surface and turned it on. She signed onto her email account remotely, and switched her headset on.   
  
She saw her prize immediately. "Command: open," she whispered into the device, as to not let anyone in the outside halls hear her.  
  
"Wow…" she said, as the letter opened. It was longer than she had expected from Heero, although that wasn't exactly saying much.  
  
Message sent May 16  
197  
From User L101  
To User VFMdarlian  
  
Relena:  
  
Highbridge Academy in Auckland is where I'm enrolled; I got a lucky break because J knows the headmistress here.   
I must ask you not to tell the Preventors, or anyone for that matter, as to my whereabouts. I'm under orders from J to let no one know. He thinks I should start a new life of sorts, away from people who want the information and skills that a Gundam pilot could offer. It's mostly a precautionary measure, but he says it's necessary. Or he could just be paranoid.  
  
-01  
Relena stopped for a moment. Did Heero Yuy really tell her all of this? Did he go against mission?! He wasn't supposed to let anyone know… but here it was, plain as day; he told someone. Her. 'Not to mention, was that last comment actually funny?' she thought.   
  
"And my life wasn't complicated enough…" she said aloud. She pounded her fist on the table in sudden frustration. "He makes me so mad!"   
  
But her anger soon eased into a sigh. She couldn't be mad at anyone but herself. She should have just ignored the email, just like her birthday present. She looked to her side, wishing she could just talk to him in person- wishing he was right next to her. That's when she noticed something, though. A young man was standing in the doorway, after apparently hearing her pound the table.  
  
"Something the matter, Minister Darlian?" he asked politely. Relena blushed.  
  
"Oh no, nothing… sorry…" she stuttered. 'Great, he recognizes me…'   
  
"I didn't mean to intrude, Ma'am," he said.  
  
"And I didn't mean to be in here… I apologize… Mister…?" she questioned his name.  
  
"Ledger, the name's Dule Ledger. I was coming to a meeting I had in this conference hall early to get some work done, but I didn't expect to meet the Vice Foreign Minister herself in here. Are you sitting in on the meetings as well, Ma'am?" he asked, speaking with a very clear Australian accent.  
  
"Oh no, I was just leaving when I… realized I had something to do on my computer. I… sort of ducked in here to avoid the crowds in the main lobby," Relena said laughing slightly. "I'll get out of your way."  
  
"Oh, please, don't let me kick you out. Do you mind if I sit down? I mean, it's not every day you run into one of the most respected people in the world and get a chance to talk," he said, motioning towards a chair.  
  
"Please, feel free. Did you have a question for me or something?" she asked cordially.   
  
Dule sat in the chair beside her and replied, "No, not really. Well, actually, if you don't mind, I would like to ask what troubles a Minister so much that it would make a respectable lady loose her cool," he said with a smile.  
  
She really didn't know what to say exactly. As Relena pondered her answer, she looked him over. He was young, dressed in a suit and tie (although it was clear the jacket of his suit had long been removed), and was pretty good looking.   
  
"I… well, believe it or not, I sometimes don't know exactly what to say to people," she said. "And let's just leave it at that."   
  
"Fair enough," he said. He placed a worn, chocolate-colored hand on her shoulder and said in a mock-profound tone, "Miss Darlian, if I may give some advice that a wise man once told me: sometimes, you do what you have to do, without analyzing your thoughts beforehand. No matter what the consequences, if you know you have to, then it must be done."   
  
Relena smiled warmly at his remarks. Despite their vagueness, they struck a chord with Relena. She felt that although this man couldn't have been more than five years older than she, he knew something. She could tell by his hand; the tired palm on her shoulder felt like it had been through forty more years of experience than his age was showing.  
  
"I'll keep that in mind. Thank you very much," Relena said as she began putting up her laptop in preparation to leave. "It was a pleasure talking to you, Mr. Ledger."  
  
"Same to you, Minister Darlian," he said.  
  
After gathering her things, Relena walked out of the room with a fresh set of thoughts to ponder, and an idea.   
  
~~~  
Sally, Noin, and Zechs unloaded their baggage in Relena's room, which was decided to be the temporary resting place of their mountains of stuff.  
  
Noin fell backwards onto Relena's hotel suite bed, inhaling the sweet fragrances that were all around Relena's things. "It's so good to be back on the Earth! Fresh air is the greatest blessing to mankind, I swear!"  
  
"Amen! For me, one day in space is enough to make me long for breeze," Sally added.   
  
Noin glanced at Zechs, who was absentmindedly putting clothes away.  
  
"What's wrong, Zechs?" she asked, concern filling her voice.  
  
"I was just thinking the same question about Relena," he said. Although his tone was thoughtful, it clearly wasn't dazed. Relena had the ability to frustrate him. I mean, with a girl like that for a sister, how could you read her actions? She was so unpredictable.  
  
"Yeah, it was kind of weird when she just ditched us," Sally said.  
  
"Well, you heard what she said, she forgot to do something," Noin said without worrying at all.  
  
"Relena? Forget something? Noin, the girl is like clockwork with her business," Zechs said.  
  
"He's got a point, Noin," Sally commented.  
  
"I think you're over-reacting." Noin finished her argument, and with that, they dropped the subject and return to organizing their things.  
  
A few minutes later, they were joined by the Minister herself. She walked in as though she was totally lost in thought.  
  
"Hello, Miss Relena," Sally said cheerfully as she came in.  
  
"What did you forget?" was the question from Zechs.  
  
Relena laughed. "Well, that was abrupt," she said. She had already planned her answer, though, so she had no sweat on reply. "Actually, I forgot to speak with Lady Ashana. I didn't see her there today and I wanted to speak with her about the recent disputes on the western coast in Africa." All of this, actually, was true. Lady Ashana was a well known peace promoter from Ghana, who was not that much different from Relena herself. They were pretty good friends, since the Lady was one of the closest to Relena in age (Lady Ashana was only twenty seven) out of the ESUN delegates, plus their views were quite similar. Relena had not seen Ashana at the conference, and she was almost positive that Ashana would make an appearance, seeing how this was Africa's largest conference of the year.  
  
"Did you speak with her?" Noin asked.  
  
"No, she was still gone. But she'll probably be at the Rome meeting next month."  
  
"Well I certainly hope so; I've been hoping that a settlement could have been reached by now in her area of jurisdiction," Zechs said. "If there's one thing Ashana isn't like you about, Relena, it's her nerve. I think she is afraid to make the wrong decision, and therefore analyzes it way too much."  
  
"Yeah, but think about the difference in security measures. The embassies in the affected countries just don't give the same kind of protection for her that Relena gets, mostly due to money. I think she knows if the people aren't happy with her decisions, she puts the lives of herself and all of her staff in danger of being attacked," Sally noted insightfully.   
  
"I feel sorry for her sometimes…" Relena said with a sigh.  
~End of Part 2  
  
Okay, disclaimer- don't own. Email me at inrose@aminorglitch.com  
  
Okay, important notes on Dule: I drew his name and physical characteristics from Dule Hill on the West Wing. Except for the accent, that is. So when you think of his looks, think about Dule Hill, who is a fine looking man. His personality came from many places, but he might end up a lot like Charles Gunn from Angel- you'll see. And you say his name "Doo-lay."  
  
Review please! More Action coming in later chapters, I promise! 


	3. Fencing

Highbridge  
  
By Cherry Flavored  
  
Disclaimer: Don't own.  
  
Part Three- Fencing  
  
~~~~  
Message sent May 17  
197  
From User VFMdarlian   
To User L101  
  
Heero:  
  
It must be hard to disappear again. J's really got you in the middle of nowhere. The Preventors have been pretty quiet lately; nothing much is going on. I doubt they'd even want to find you right now. I just hope everything stays like this…  
Everybody is very complacent at this time, just like before the OZ revolt. I'm glad that things are going so well, but I can't help but feel uneasy.   
So, Heero, how are you doing at your school? I remember at St. Gabriel's you just came to school when you had to. Everyone wanted you in their club; you had so many talents! Have you ever considered doing one of those after-school things? It would probably do you some good.  
  
-Relena  
  
P.S. Zechs, Noin, and Sally have arrived back from space. I'm happy to finally have them home, but it makes it hard to write this email. Since we were going to leave so soon after they got here, they just stayed in my hotel room. Talk about crashing! I had to wait to write this until we had gotten on the plane. It's getting late, though, so everyone else has fallen asleep- except Zechs, of course.  
Heero finished reading just as he heard the school bell ring, warning all students that they had a mere five minutes until classes begin. He quickly shut off his laptop, arose from the bench he was sitting on, and began the short trek to the front doors of the main building.  
  
Before walking inside, he stopped and turned to face the outside. He looked at the beautiful campus, where a large statue stood in honor of the school founder. He looked past that, and squinted so he could barely see what was beyond the city- the ocean. He thought about what Relena said, and knew that it was true- he had been having the same fears lately. 'How long will this peace last? When all of our leaders become complacent, they become an easy target for rebel groups to arise. I just hope Relena can handle it all,' he thought.   
  
"In my opinion, Relena Peacecraft is a much stronger person than you."  
  
Heero remembered when Treize had told him that. 'He was right…' he thought as he walked inside, not quite ready for a new day of classes.  
~  
  
"Attention passengers, ten minutes until landing."  
  
Relena woke up at the sound of the announcement. She looked around, a bit drowsy still. She saw Sally in one of the seats closer to the front of the plane, typing away on her laptop.  
  
'Hmm, looks like me last night…' she mused. Relena then saw a face that she'd seen before pop up on Sally's vidscreen. Their conversation caught her attention.  
  
"So, Chang, what have you got for me?" Sally asked.  
  
"Not much, except something strange happened."  
  
"What was it?" Sally asked, suddenly serious.  
  
"I got a call from a certain pilot yesterday," Wufei said.   
  
Relena was all ears.   
  
Wufei smirked. "Zero four."  
  
"Quatre Winner? But he hasn't contacted Preventors in ages…" Sally said.  
  
Relena exhaled a deep breath she had no idea she was holding. Sally heard.  
  
Without looking back at Relena, she told Wufei quickly, "Hey Chang, call me back later, okay?"  
  
Wufei realized there must have been a reason behind Sally's abruptness, so he didn't protest. "Later," he said, and with a smirk, he signed off.  
  
"Please fasten all seatbelts and remain seated."  
  
Relena buckled up, and prepared to arrive home, but her mind was on something else. Her brain was flooded with questions. Her chief query was why was Quatre calling Preventors? She knew of all of the Gundam pilot's estrangement from the Preventors, with the exception of Wufei. That's why Heero left for New Zealand, after all. But Quatre was in the public eye often, so maybe it's nothing.  
  
Or maybe it is something.  
  
~  
  
*ring*  
  
The bell rang for the final time of the day, and Heero Yuy made his way to the exit with the normal, anonymous walk that he's been so accustomed to using in the past two years. He suddenly felt a hand tap his shoulder. Heero almost turned on instinct in attack mode, but he stopped himself. Instead, he turned around softly to see Yume Stratton looking at him.   
  
"Hey, Adam."  
  
"Hello, Yume," he said.  
  
"You remembered me? Cool," Yume said with a smile.  
  
"I remember everything," Heero said, in a quick switch back to his famous deadpan voice. But he soon snapped out of it. "What do you need?" Heero asked in a much more pleasant tone.  
  
Yume had a strange look for a moment, but forgot Heero's "uncharacteristic" comment as quickly as he heard it. "Well, you see, I'm on the Highbridge fencing team and we were having tryouts for this year tomorrow and I was wondering if I could persuade you to-"  
  
"You want me to tryout?" Heero asked. Yume nodded. Heero was about to say no, but thought back to Relena…  
  
"Okay, that sounds alright," Heero said. His tone was not quite convincing, but Yume took his answer at face value. "What time?"  
  
"3:30, immediately after school, in Langford Performance Hall," Yume smiled, but was dying to ask a question he was holding back. "Um, Adam… do you have any experience at fencing?"  
  
Heero looked at Yume. What to tell him? "I… have just a little, from classes at school, you know, that stuff," he answered.  
  
"Oh, well that's great. We're always looking for people that have had previous training," he said with an enthusiastic look.  
  
"Alright…" Heero walked away, but not before he let a small smirk creep up his face. "Sounds like fun…"  
  
~  
  
Relena, Zechs, Noin, and Sally had arrived at Zech's mansion on schedule. This was where Zech, Relena, Noin, and occasionally, random Preventor employees lived. It was the true "community house" of the ESUN peacekeepers- if an agent was on call and had no where to go, this is where they came. Sally Po was the guest for this particular day.  
  
It only took Relena an hour after arrival to pull out her computer and headset. She felt a certain anxiety about her messages from Heero, and she could only hope that a new one was waiting for her.   
  
"Command: open," Relena said as her email account was pulled up.   
  
"Nothing…" she said. It's not like she expected something to be there every hour, she just always felt disappointed.   
  
She pulled her headset off. "This is killing me! I wish… I wish I could just be there…" Relena couldn't deny that she'd always wanted to visit someplace beautiful like Auckland…   
  
She just… wanted to talk to him in person. The words she received from him, although they were his, they… lack the truth of a face to face talk, or the beauty of hand written letters. Cold type was all she knew of him. She longed to just… hear his voice.  
  
But Relena knew, those thoughts had to be… cast aside.  
  
Hours later, she received this:  
Message sent May 17  
197  
From User L101  
To User VFMdarlian  
  
Relena,   
  
I know what you mean. Nobody except the Preventors are ever thinking about any possible problems. It worries me too.  
Relena, when you were at St. Gabriel's, it was a totally different story. You were at school until 5 every afternoon. If I had ten people wanting me to join their organization, you had twenty. You had an unreal amount of influence over everyone you met.  
  
-01  
  
P.S. I took your advice. I'm trying out for fencing team tomorrow.  
~  
  
"Alright, boys, this is where we draw the line," barked a tall young man with blond hair. He was facing a line of teenagers dressed in white fencing uniforms and held a clipboard in his hand.  
  
A sound of someone clearing their throat arose at the end of the line.   
  
The man with the clipboard rolled his eyes and faced the disruption. A girl stuck her head out from the masses of boys in line with her. "Pardon me, Miss Lai, I meant to say 'boys and girls,'" he said sarcastically.  
  
Heero rolled his eyes. He stood attentive, as this was the only chance he was going to get to be in any form of extracurricular activity. Heero didn't like the attitude of the kid giving instructions, but since he seemed to be the leader, Heero didn't complain.   
  
"Each of the existing team members will be paired up with one of you newbies, and by the end of today, we will decide who's worthy of a slot on the team. My name is Jonathon Levenson, and I am the captain and a year 12. I'll introduce you to the co-captains. This is Elijah Harris, also a year 12." The brown-haired kid that Jonathon referred to as Elijah stepped forward. "And our year 11 co-captain, Yume Stratton." Yume didn't step forward when Jonathon motioned him to, though, because he was… distracted.  
  
"Anyway, the team members know who they are to partner with. So, let's begin."  
  
In a short time, a dark-haired boy approached Heero. "Are you Adam Yurigashi?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Hi, I'm Jeremy, I'm in year 12," the boy said, extending his hand to Heero. Heero shook his hand. Heero didn't realize he needed to back off on his hand shakes until he saw Jeremy's eyes get real big. "Gee, Adam, you've got a grip, there."  
  
Heero smirked.  
  
"Ok, let's begin," Jeremy called.   
  
*clang* *ping* It began. Heero's moves were like lightening, but Jeremy was keeping up. They began to move in all different directions. They soon cleared a path for themselves amidst the other fighters, who were slowly stopping to watch the intense match. For a moment it crossed Heero's mind to let him win; after all, there was the secret identity and all. But he remembered his fight with Dorothy Catalonia, and thought otherwise.  
  
*crack!* With a sudden sweep, Jeremy's sword flew from his hands and crashed onto the floor. Heero froze in a lunge, his sword inches away from his opponent's face.   
  
"Nice job… Yurigashi," Jeremy said, uneasily. Heero moved out of his finishing position.   
  
"Thanks."  
  
Yume leaned over to his captain. "Nice recruit, no?" he whispered.  
  
~  
  
End of part three  
  
Email me with comments at inrose@aminorglitch.com 


	4. I Dream of Yume

Highbridge  
  
By Cherry Flavored  
  
Disclaimer: Don't own  
  
Part Four- I Dream of Yume  
  
~  
  
Heero returned to his dormitory room and started some coffee. He then moved towards a table and pulled out his beloved laptop.  
  
Still operates like clockwork.  
  
Heero opened his email to see two messages. One of them was from user "Ohjonathon".  
  
"Hmm… rather vein for a fencing captain…" Heero noted. He scrolled through the email to see nothing he couldn't figure out himself: he had made the Highbridge fencing team.  
  
The second email interest Heero far more:  
  
Message sent May 18  
197  
From User VFMdarlian  
To User L101  
  
Heero,  
  
That's great that you're doing something for a change. Fencing, huh? You'll have a slight advantage at that, won't you?  
Heero, are you going to be locked up at school forever? I mean… well, you know what I mean. Zero contact… forever?  
I guess I was like that at St. Gabriel's… but things have changed, right? Sometimes it would be nice to be able to experience those things again, but I love my job, so I'm not complaining.  
  
-Relena  
  
~  
  
"There, that's the last one!" Relena said with a smile. She finished her last bit of paperwork for the day, and was about to finally go to bed. She was tired, but grateful for what was coming- she knew that since Noin and Zechs were temporarily back from working on the Terra Formation Project, she would have *slightly* less work to do every day for a few months. Success!  
  
Relena changed into something more comfortable and turned on her TV. She glanced through the vast array of movies she had, wanting to watch something to get her mind off of… everything. She found a nice Hong Kong comedy a popped it into her DVD player.   
  
She was asleep before the opening titles were finished.  
  
~  
  
Relena woke with a start. She looked around at the familiar place, and at the familiar bed she was in. But she felt uneasy.  
  
"Why do I feel like this isn't right?" she thought aloud. "Oh well…"  
  
Relena got dressed in her red uniform. She then headed downstairs to have a quick breakfast with her mother and father. She saw her father sitting at the table.  
  
"Good morning, Father!" she said cheerily. Suddenly, her father disappeared. Relena apparently didn't think this was too weird, though. She took her seat at the huge, long table and waited to be served.   
  
"Here you are, Miss Relena."  
  
A plate of food appeared in front of her. "Thank you, Pagan." Relena looked down to eat it, and it was already gone.   
  
"Let's go, Pagan," she called to her butler. They headed out the door for school.   
  
When Relena arrived at school, she felt the uneasy feeling she had that morning. She brushed in off. She strolled into class to see her friends, but when they greeted her, they all spoke Chinese. In fact, everyone around her spoke Chinese.   
  
"Um, I think I better go…" she said. She rushed out of the room and out of the building. Outside, she looked to the sky to see that it was suddenly night. She looked across the lawn to see Heero sitting on a bench. She rushed towards him, but suddenly, a boy appeared in her path, blocking her from Heero.  
  
"Quatre…"   
  
"Hello, Miss Relena. There is something you need to see," he said in a very normal tone.  
  
"But I need to see Heero."  
  
"That will come in time. Walk this way." He motioned her to face the opposite direction. Quatre waved his hand, and suddenly a picture appeared in the sky, of Relena lying motionless on a bed.  
  
"What is this?"  
  
"Exposition," he said. He then faced her and began to speak in rhyme:  
  
Don't be alarmed, the girl lies here  
And isn't sick or dead,  
But "worked herself until exhaust"  
Ergo she lies here in this bed.  
  
She fainted and she fell   
Her body limp and lame,  
So her family sent her away  
And to me she came.  
  
But don't be fooled by what I say  
Because all but I were deceived,  
By my suggest she fakes her ills  
So to him she could be received.  
  
She'll soon make tracks to a certain place  
To find him once again,  
And no one else will know  
Her family believing she's on the mend.  
  
But her reasons are not selfish  
This isn't a pleasure cruise,  
She'll need to get him out of there  
Before another can light the fuse…  
  
Relena stared blankly at Quatre. What did he mean? She turned to look him in the eye, but slowly Quatre… morphed… into someone else. A boy, about Quatre's age, with bleach-blond hair (his dark roots were showing) and with almond eyes similar to Heero's.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
"I am the Dream. Yume," the boy said.  
  
"Why are you here?" she asked.  
  
"I need to warn you. Adam doesn't have much time left, and neither do I, if you don't help."  
  
"Who is Adam?" Relena asked.  
  
The boy pointed to the bench behind them, where Heero sat. "He has been found, and in two weeks, something terrible will happen. You must tell him. Find him. Unless you no longer value his life… but I somehow doubt that. Do what you have to do, without analyzing your thoughts beforehand. No matter what the consequences, if you know you have to, then it must be done… Find your light…"  
  
"That's what Dule said… Wait, what is going to happen to him?"  
  
The boy slowly morphed into another familiar face.  
  
"They'll all die…" rang the voice of none other than Dule Ledger.   
  
"Oh no… Heero!"  
  
~  
  
Relena woke with a start, only this time it was for real. She looked around her real room, and at the still-playing DVD.  
  
"A dream…"  
  
~End  
  
Sorry that this chapter was kind of short. By the way, the fencing team captain's name is Jonathan Levenson, who was a character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was just a little in-joke. His user name came from the Buffy-Jonathon's "autobiography" called "Oh, Jonathon!"  
  
Also, for those of you that don't know, "Yume" is Japanese for "dream". 


	5. Getting Help and Being Challenged

Highbridge   
  
By Cherry Flavored  
  
Chapter 5- Getting Help and Being Challenged  
  
Disclaimer: Don't own.  
  
This chapter had a definite balance between the grave and the light-hearted. There will be a lot of mixing between those two until at least half way through the story, so if Heero's bits at school get boring to you, deal with it. ^_-  
~~~~  
  
*inside an office building, location unknown*  
  
"I told you that I don't think that is the correct path for us! Besides, I don't feel right about doing all of that just for one lousy person!" screamed a young man.  
  
"Oh yes you will! I have no reservations about it, so neither should you! Did I really raise you? You certainly don't act like it!" yelled a man back.  
  
"You'd like to think that! My mother played more a part than you'll ever know!"  
  
"Fine, you think that. Just don't forget what home you go back to everyday. Without me, you wouldn't have one! Without me, you wouldn't even be employed!"  
  
The young man paused. He looked away in defeat. "I'm sorry… I will go ahead with plans…"  
  
The older man's face softened. "Hey, remember that time that you tried to get a job at the Sydney Zoo because you didn't know where else to find one?" he asked with an amused expression.   
  
The young man smiled. "Yeah… I was cleaning up after monkeys for three weeks until you offered me a job working under you and traveling to the ESUN conferences… That was right after Mother died, and I was torn up."  
  
"Jasmine was the most incredible person ever; I know I can never replace her."  
  
"Tell me about it…" The two men laughed together. They both smiled.  
  
After the laughter had subsided, the older one spoke up. "Now, down to business…"  
  
~~~  
  
Relena leaned over in bed to check her digital bedside clock. "1:54 am… I wonder what time it is in Egypt?" she thought. She didn't want to do what she knew she was about to, but after his cameo in her incredibly disturbing dream, she felt she needed to call him.   
  
"I hope Quatre doesn't mind the wake up call…" she said. Normally, she would have waited until morning, because she felt very guilty calling someone during the night. But then again, this didn't happen often.  
  
She got out of bed and rushed to her vidphone, where she dialed up Quatre's newest residence in Cairo. It wasn't long before a not-so-chipper Maguenac answered.   
  
"My I please speak with Mr. Winner?" she said in the most diplomatic voice she could muster at 2 am.  
  
"Well, Miss, is this an emergency? Because the Master's…" the soldier's voice trailed off as he realized who it was that had called.   
  
"Yes, in fact, it is important. Is that still okay? I could always call back…" Relena said.  
  
"Oh no, Miss Darlian, please, one moment," he said as he rushed off to find Quatre.  
  
Relena stood waiting, slightly tapping her feet against the soft carpet.  
  
Quatre's face appeared on the screen. "Miss Relena, how are you? Is something wrong?"  
  
"Yes, in fact it is, and I'm going to have to tell you some extremely confidential information. But first, I have a question for you," she said.  
  
"What's that?"   
  
"Why did you contact Preventors recently? I overheard Wufei about to tell Sally that you called out of the blue." She didn't want to be nosy, either, but this was a night of exceptions- what if Quatre knew something?  
  
Quatre looked serious. "Well, I'm not sure if you want to know, Miss Relena…" he started, but the looked on Relena's face told him "yes I do."  
  
"Well, Trowa contacts me semi-regularly with any information he has for Preventors, or about anything unusual that happens. This time he had something he thought was big. He really didn't know much, but he thinks that Senator Ashana from Ghana is missing," Quatre said with worry visible on his face.  
  
"Oh my…" Relena gasped. "Ashana wasn't at the conference in Kenya!"  
  
Quatre's surprise could not be concealed. "That is troubling…"  
  
"Does Trowa know who's behind Ashana's disappearance?" Relena asked.  
  
"Not really, but he's looking at all options. Were there any other senators missing?"  
  
"Senator Lai from China, Senator Finn from America, and Senator Alcott from Australia were the only people I didn't run into," she said.  
  
"We'll look into all of those people. I'll contact Trowa soon," he said. He suddenly remembered something. "So, Relena, what was the other reason you called?"  
  
"Oh, well, I know this sounds so incredibly silly, but I had a really awful dream. A kid spoke to me and insisted that…" Relena thought about how she would word her statements. It became clear that the blond pilot must know about Heero. She closed her eyes for a moment, relishing in the final moments of her secret. "He insisted that a school in New Zealand was going to be attacked in some way, and that everyone would die." Relena waited for Quatre to chime in with "you're too worried; that's silly" but he remained silent and urged her to continue.   
  
"More importantly, you were in my dream, telling me of some plan… or something like that. The memory is sort of getting fuzzy. But that's why I called you particularly, because you were the only person I knew making guest appearances in my dream…" she said.  
  
"Well, Relena, that sounds serious. Why a school, though? What's the value in attacking that? Is there a child of a representative that attends there? Relena, there wasn't a name to your dream school, was there? I could look it up to see if it exists…" Quatre said, sounding like he was trying to organize his thoughts. He was totally lost in them until Relena spoke up.  
  
"It's real," she said guiltily. Quatre looked up, confused. "I mean, the school was never mentioned, but I knew exactly what they were talking about…."  
  
"How's that?" Quatre asked.  
  
Relena took a deep breath and looked towards the floor, the guilt still apparent in her face.  
  
"Heero is there."  
  
~~~   
  
Yume wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. But that was, obviously, not a smart move. Heero took the opportunity to swing up and force Yume's weapon from his hand.   
  
He never had a chance.  
  
Yume's eyebrow twitched nervously for a second. "Nice one, Adam."  
  
"Yeah, well. You hesitated. I would have never beaten you if you hadn't." Heero said, loosing the white shield that covered his face. Heero was not getting tired at practice, just a little bored. He was winning every match. For some reason, though, Heero was… well, enjoying himself. Boredom or no, he liked having something to do. As he walked over to the side of the large auditorium where practices where held, he thought about this idea- it was actually a good one.  
  
He grabbed his water bottle and leaned against the wall. "Thanks…" he said, seemingly to the air- but his comment had an object.  
  
"Whatcha thinkin' about, Adam?" Yume said as he approached. Heero didn't realize that, as he stood there looking up into the ceiling, he looked a little… wistful, maybe?  
  
"Nothing," Heero said. Heero looked over Yume's shoulder to see someone coming straight towards them. Heero found his escape route from the conversation. "We have a visitor."  
  
Yume turned around and froze. He turned right back around to face Heero. "Oh no…"  
  
"Nihao, almighty fearless captain!" said the newcomer. Heero saw a short girl come into full view as she addressed Yume. He recognized her immediately, as she was the only female person on the fencing team. It became apparent to Heero that Yume recognized her for something else.  
  
"Hey, Sarah. Do what do we owe the pleasure?" Yume asked, regaining his composure.   
  
"I wanted to meet the guy everyone's gossiping about," she reached out her hand to Heero. "Sarah Lai, year 11."  
  
Heero shook her hand and managed a half-smile of recognition. He didn't like being the "guy everyone's gossiping about", but he figured that would happen once he revealed his athletic ability. It'll pass, though, he figured.  
  
"Sarah, meet Adam Yurigashi," Yume said.   
  
"I would like to challenge you, if you don't mind," she said.   
  
Heero was about to agree to a match- hey, he always loved a challenge- but Jonathon began to shout at the front of the room, signaling the end of practice.  
  
"Yeah, tomorrow," Heero said quickly. He began to walk away.  
  
Sarah wasn't satisfied. "Wait," she said, and Heero turned around. "Do you guys mind bending a couple of rules?" she asked Heero and Yume mischievously.  
  
Yume smiled at her, "No, of course not! Right Adam?"   
  
Heero smirked.   
  
"That's a yes!" Yume said excitedly.  
  
"Okay, meet me outside of Stevenson Dormitory at 9 tonight." She grinned.  
  
"Alright!" Yume's smile almost broke his face. Heero shook his head in amusement.  
  
"See you!" she said. Heero and Yume began walking again.   
  
"Alright, how long is this going to take?" Heero asked as he and Yume exited the building and began to head towards the dormitories.  
  
"Why do you say it like that?" Yume asked.   
  
"No reason."  
  
"Well, it will depend on how long your match lasts. I'm assuming she's going to sneak us into someplace so we can practice. I hate it that she can get away with everything," Yume said, although he sounded like he didn't hate it.  
  
Heero raised an eyebrow. "Why's that?"  
  
"Because her father is one of the Chinese representatives in ESUN, that's why."  
  
"Oh…" Heero said, storing that little bit of information- just in case. "Anyway, we're meeting at 9, right?"  
  
"Correct, sir," Yume mocked.  
  
"Okay then, see you later," Heero said, anxious to get to his room.  
  
"Bye!"  
  
~End  
  
Okay, chapter 6 is coming soon. Any questions, comments, or reviews? My email is cherryflavored1R@gundam-wing.net 


	6. A Duel in Action and a Plan in Motion

Highbridge  
  
By Cherry Flavored  
  
Chapter 6- A Duel in Action and a Plan in Motion  
  
Disclaimer: Don't own  
  
~~~  
  
Heero glanced at the ticking digital numbers on his watch- it was 8:39:28. After an uneventful night, he decided that he might as well get ready to go meet Yume a little early. He hadn't sent an email to Relena yet, because… well, how could he plainly state that his exit was indefinite? Heero never procrastinated until now… something would come to him later… something to answer her question…  
  
"Zero contact… forever?"   
  
~~~  
  
Relena sat in front of the vidphone in her office talking to Quatre, confirming the progress they've made on their plan.  
  
"I've mentioned to Noin that I had spoken with you, and that you had wished to meet with me," Relena said.  
  
Quatre nodded. "Are you ready for what you have to do?"  
  
"Yeah, it's not really that big of a deal…" Relena said, looking at the ground. "I just don't like lying."  
  
"You know what you must do, Miss Relena. It this could save the lives of quite a few people… not to mention Heero's." Quatre smiled reassuringly at Relena.  
  
"I know," Relena said. She lowered her head in thought, allowing herself to stare at the cherry wood of her desk and nothing else. "Goodbye, Quatre."  
  
"Good luck, Ophelia," Quatre said with a chuckle.  
  
~~~  
  
"Good evening, gentlemen!" Sarah Lai said with a very perky smile as she watched Yume and Heero stroll towards her.  
  
"Hey Sarah!" Yume said, nervously matching her perkiness accidentally.  
  
He glanced over at Yume, who was blushing as he looked at Sarah. Heero rolled his eyes. "Where to?" he asked.  
  
"Nice to see you, too, Adam," Sarah said sarcastically. "Where else? The Lai Auditorium, of course."  
  
'Ah,' Heero thought. 'Her father's probably given a hefty sum of money to the school. That's why she gets the run of this place.' He chuckled to himself. "You lead the way…"  
  
They arrived at the destination after walking across the entire campus. Yume looked a bit flustered from the hike. Heero wasn't fazed. The Lai Auditorium was smaller than their usual practice area, but the performance stage would serve as a sufficient arena to fight in.  
  
"Be back in a second," Sarah said as she disappeared behind the stage.  
  
"You ready, champ?" Yume teased Heero.  
  
"Hn."  
  
"Really…" Yume rolled his eyes.  
  
Heero heard Sarah's footsteps behind him quicken. "Hey Adam, catch!" she said as she threw Heero a foil and a head cover. "Ready when you are."  
  
Yume stood between them as they turned to face each other. He looked to his left to see that Heero was prepared. On his right, Sarah looked ready too.  
  
"Alright," Yume said with an important tone in his voice. "On guard. You may begin."  
  
*chink* Sarah was the first to lunge in and took a very aggressive opening stance. Heero blocked her from coming in too close, though, and followed suit with an aggressive attack pattern. Yume backed away from the pair very quickly.  
  
'She really wants to prove herself…' Heero thought. 'Or she could just be over confident.'  
  
*swoosh* Heero pulled his foil away quickly and merely dodged her swing at him so he could bring his weapon in with a much more powerful thrust.  
  
*clash*! Their swords crashed together, but Sarah lost her footing and stepped backwards. She didn't let her face show her surprise, though. Heero was gaining the advantage, but Sarah looked really determined to pull back their equality. She pushed forward.  
  
"Wow, you guys are great!" Yume said enthusiastically. He was circling around the intense bout when he heard a noise coming from outside the door. It sounded like… keys jingling…  
  
"Oh no! Guys, stop for a second!" he said, rushing towards them and trying to avoid their weapons at the same time. "Cease fire!"  
  
Heero and Sarah both stopped. "A janitor's in the hall outside! We aren't supposed to be in here!"  
  
Sarah relaxed. "Oh, is that all? Okay, Adam, you and Yume go out through the back door and I'll talk with whoever it is. I meet you outside in a few minutes. We won't get to finish our bout, though, Adam."  
  
Yume grabbed Heero's arm and pulled him to the exit. "Oh well, so sorry, now let's go!" The two made it through the back door and into the outside gardens just in time.  
  
"That was a close one. I really don't like getting in trouble," Yume said.  
  
"Believe it or not, I kind of figured that."  
  
"Yeah well, you don't seem like you'd care anyway…" Yume said, looking at Heero with a smirk. He sat down on the grass.  
  
"You know what?" Heero began as he sat down as well, "I guess I don't really care about getting in trouble. I shouldn't be afraid of some teacher's weird ideas of discipline. I've seen worse."  
  
Yume looked at him with a puzzled expression. "You know I'd ask you what you meant by that, but I wouldn't get a response, would I?"  
  
Heero smirked. This kid catches on. "It's not likely."  
  
"Come to think of it, do you know how much you've told me about yourself?" Yume asked rhetorically. "Zero percent of your life story has been revealed. Why are you so… well, I don't know… secretive?"  
  
"Yeah, Adam, tell us a story," said Sarah, coming up from behind them. She kneeled down by them. "You know that there are less dirty places to sit out here," she said, pointing to a large gazebo sitting under a tree with benches all in it. "It's not like anyone can see us over there in the dark."  
  
So the group moved to the benches, Heero hoping that they would stop interrogating him.  
  
No such prayer was answered. "Why are you holding out on us, Adam? You got something to hide?" Sarah teased.  
  
"Some stories should never be told," Heero said.  
  
Yume looked awestruck by Heero's words, but Sarah scoffed. "Great, that's very profound."  
  
Heero smiled and slowly began to laugh. He had just made a startling connection. "You're just like a guy I knew, only female."  
  
"Come again?" Sarah asked. Both she and Yume were mildly frightened by Heero's sudden change in disposition.   
  
Heero ceased his laughter. "This kid from America I used to know. You sound just like him. He was very sarcastic, but he always tried to make light out of things. Well, he was either doing that or trying to irritate people. I suspected it was intentional, because he was very good at it."  
  
"Wow, Adam, I'm impressed. You had friends?" Sarah laughed. Heero smiled at the comment, genuinely amused.   
  
Yume's eyes got very wide. "Sarah! That's…" Yume was about to say that her quip was mean, but he stopped himself when he realized he'd been thinking the same thing.  
  
"Well, now that you put it that way, I did used to have people I could call friends… or something of the sort," Heero said, shaking his head. Yume spoke up.  
  
"You make it sound like you didn't realize it."  
  
~~~  
  
Relena walked into the house and took a deep breath.  
  
"Noin…" she said uneasily. "Are you here?"  
  
She heard a muffled call from the hall outside the entryway from Noin, indicating her presence. She appeared before Relena. "Hey," she said.  
  
"Noin, I'm not feeling well at all…" Relena said, weakly placing a hand to the wall as she walked to keep herself from falling. "I need to go lay down."  
  
"I should say so! Have you worked yourself into a fever again? You always do this!" Noin scolded. "Get up stairs and lay down."   
  
Relena did as she was told, going to her room and getting into bed. She sighed. "Forgive me, Noin," she whispered.  
  
Almost on cue, Noin walked in.  
  
Relena looked up at her. "Noin, what appointments did I have today? I suppose I'll have to cancel…" she looked away wistfully.  
  
Noin put her fingers to her mouth in thought. "I don't remember anything in particular… Wait, you were supposed to meet with Quatre, weren't you?"  
  
"Yeah…" Relena got an idea. "Noin, could you go get me the laptop with the vidphone on it? I think it's downstairs…"  
  
"Sure thing. Are you going to call Quatre?" she asked as she headed for the door.  
  
"Yes, what's wrong?"  
  
Noin looked at her sheepishly. "Well, Relena, you're sick, and you're not exactly in formal dress…" she said, noting Relena's pajamas.  
  
Relena just smiled. "Noin, since when do old friends worry about things like that? I'd rather talk to him in this state than break an appointment with no announcement."  
  
"Ever the senator…" Noin laughed as she left the room, shutting the door behind her.  
  
~~~  
  
Heero had escaped Yume and Sarah's questions for the night and made it up to his room, but not without leaving the pair a lot more queries to think about.   
  
"How more obvious could I get?" Heero said to himself angrily. "The whole purpose of this mission was to bury Heero Yuy forever!"  
  
Heero sighed loudly and collapsed onto his bed. He stared at the white, boring ceilings, attempting to bring himself away from the thought that suddenly plagued his mind.  
  
'This mission can NOT turn out to be futile… That would defeat the purpose of leaving… my true duty…'  
  
Heero fell asleep right there, in his clothes and everything, thinking about everything he would rather be doing…  
  
~~~  
  
"Miss Relena, are you sure you'll be alright?" Quatre asked with concern. His face was flashing from the vidphone Relena had propped in her lap. Noin stood by watching the conversation.  
  
"Oh yes, Quatre, don't worry about it. I just need to rest," she stated warmly.  
  
Quatre fell into a look of thought. "Well, you could always come to the Cairo Estates. You'd be secluded, because I was just about to head to the house in Florence to attend to some business I have there. You could get some rest."  
  
Relena looked up at Noin for a reaction. Noin smiled. "You know, Relena, that doesn't sound like a bad idea. Plus, you could talk to Quatre about whatever it was he wanted to speak with you about…" Noin winked.  
  
Relena was put off by the last gesture, but nodded to Quatre. "Thank you for your kind offer. I would be more than pleased to come."  
  
~End  
  
Ooookkay… *waits patiently for the flames* I'm SO SORRY that this wasn't updated, but my computer was broken for two months!! Then I'd already forgotten what I was writing… then I actually found the papers where I had sort of planned out all of this story… but then I got side tracked by my Ranma story…  
  
Okay, no more excuses. *bows* Gomen nasai. By the way, the reference Quatre makes to Ophelia was a Shakespeare reference… Many people consider the character of Ophelia from Hamlet one of the most difficult female roles an actress could play. I thought it would be fitting to put there.  
  
Anyway, to every one that reviewed, thank you!! kmf, just so you know, I was in absolute awe when you reviewed my story… I'm quite a fan of yours!   
  
Hey folks, email me! My *new* email is inrose@aminorglitch.com. Don't be afraid!   
  
I'm never going to abandon this story, but know this: it's going to be a long ride…  
I'm just getting started!  
  
-Cherry 


	7. Visit Beautiful Bombay, or Maybe Not

Highbridge   
  
By Cherry Flavored  
  
Chapter 7  
  
Disclaimer: Don't own.  
  
~  
  
"What's the matter, Adam?"  
  
Heero's eyes snapped into focus. "What?"  
  
He turned to see Yume looking at him with a puzzled expression. "Did you not get enough coffee this morning?" he asked jokingly.  
  
Heero's mind came back to where he was- the front lawn of his school, sitting on a bench. Yume had his dozens of books piled next to Heero, and he was making an attempt to sort through them.  
  
"Oh, sorry… I guess I kind of zoned out… What did you say?" Heero asked.  
  
"Well, I was talking about the test we have in World History today, and then I mentioned that there was something wrong with you," he said. "So, what's up? Is your brain flying off into space?"  
  
'You don't know the half of it…' he thought.   
  
~~~~  
  
*on Quatre's private jet*  
  
The flight to Cairo was almost over when Abdul walked into the area of the plane Relena was at.  
  
"Miss Relena, there is a call from Master Quatre," he said, pulling a small, silver cell phone out and flipping it open. He adjusted his sunglasses and left.  
  
"Quatre?"  
  
"Hello, Miss Relena. I apologize, but there will be a slight change in plans for your flight," came Quatre's calm voice from the end of the line.  
  
"Okay, what's up?" Relena asked curiously. She was hoping it wouldn't effect any of their plans, but was ready to make adjustments if need be.  
  
"I've already instructed the pilot of the jet. Instead of stopping in Egypt, you'll be heading quite a bit past that. Our new rendezvous point will be Bombay, India. We have someone to see there. We can continue to Auckland from there."  
  
"Okay." Relena was confused, but didn't ask questions. She did want to ask Quatre something that had been troubling her for the entire flight, though.  
  
"Um, Quatre?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"I was wondering…" she paused. "Well, do you… Do you think I'm selfish for doing this?" she finally blurted out.  
  
Quatre was confused at first, but quickly caught on. "Miss Relena, please understand that you could save a couple hundred lives by doing this. You shouldn't feel that way at all. If you're worried about Zechs and the others, I don't think you should be. They can handle things fine."  
  
"I know but…"  
  
"I understand, Miss Relena."   
  
~~~~  
  
"Are you sure this was a wise decision, Noin?" Zechs asked. "I mean, she's sick, but she can't really do anything if she's off in Egypt…"  
  
"Of course I'm sure, Zechs," Noin said with a small smile. "She'll be free of her work, plus, she'll get to see an old friend…"  
  
Zechs looked at her skeptically. "I still don't think that she should seclude herself like that."  
  
Noin smiled. "I think there might be another reason she wanted to go to Cairo…"  
  
Zechs turned in disbelief. "You're serious?"  
  
Noin made an innocent face. "All I know is that she looked awfully happy to see Quatre…"  
  
Zechs just smirked. 'Yeah right,' he thought. For the first time in his life, he felt like he knew his little sister better than Noin did. "Just how bad do you want her to move on, Lucrezia?"   
  
Noin was about to open her mouth in retort, but a Preventor rushed in, his face flustered.  
  
"Lieutenant! Colonel! We just got a message from Major Po…"  
  
~~~~  
  
"Yes, I see… I'll accept this mission and inform our agent right away. I'll also make a few calls to the people you mentioned… Oh no, I'll do it myself. Thanks."  
  
A young man hung up the receiver to a small audphone and brushed his bangs to the side. This was trouble. His friend was in danger, important people were in jeopardy, and he was in charge of sending others into even more dangerous situations. Well, just one person, actually.  
  
'I can handle this. No sweat,' he thought to himself sarcastically. He paced his sparsely furnished bedroom for a moment or two.  
  
"Ah…" he said, finally working out a plan in his head. "But first…"  
  
He lifted the "door" to his room and walked outside into the chaos of people buzzing around him, working. Such is the circus life.  
  
He scanned the crowd and quickly found the object of his search.  
  
"Catherine!" he called. He rushed over to her. "Catherine…" he said as he reached her.  
  
"Oh, what is it, Trowa?" she asked.   
  
"I'm leaving for a few days," he started. Catherine's expression changed. Trowa knew she wouldn't be happy. "I promise to call and I'll be back as soon as I can," he said before his sister could protest.  
  
Catherine smiled weakly. "I know that you'll come back, Trowa. You've never let me down before…"  
  
Trowa smiled. "Thank you." He turned towards the tent he had just arrived from and rushed to return. As soon as he was off, his warm smile melted to reveal Trowa's cold "game face".   
  
He reached his room once again and grabbed his traveling bag. He quickly slung a few articles of clothing in, followed by a heap of equipment: radios, a portable vidphone, his laptop, and a mess of twisted black cords.  
  
"Hmm," he paused, thinking of what to get next. He suddenly remembered something, and bent down to open his sock drawer. He reached in and rummaged through the socks to pull out a wad of money. "Can't forget this…"  
  
He called a cab and told them where to pick him up. While he was waiting, he tried to think of anything he might have forgotten. He eyed his nightstand.   
  
"Ah," he said, grabbing a toothbrush and a hairbrush from the small table. "Catherine would want me to take care of myself." He managed a small smile.  
  
He heard a car horn honk outside. The cab was waiting to take him to his next mission. Before he walked out of his room, he grabbed a pair of scissors from his costume trunk.   
  
"She'll probably need these," he said as he left. He pulled out a cell phone from his pocket and dialed a number quickly.  
  
"Hello, Chang?" he said quietly into the phone as he entered the car. "Inform Agent Catalonia that I'm on my way."  
  
~~~  
  
Typical. Just when things were going good, something like this happens.   
  
A young man leaning against a telephone pole impatiently tapped his foot. He was quickly forced to move, however, by a person speeding by on a bicycle.  
  
"I HATE Quatre," he said. He looked at the bike rider with contempt. "And I hate you, too, for that matter!" he yelled, although the person was well out of earshot. "Idiot… Probably has his turban screwed on too tight…"  
  
The boy was really bored of standing near the airport. He had more important things to do. He needed to go home, but that thought was out of his mind. It was impossible for now.  
  
He growled. "I HATE THIS WHOLE FILTHY COUNTRY!!!"  
  
The people around him stopped and stared. Had the young man been speaking Hindi, a lot of people would have been angry with him. But since he only knew English, they simply stared.  
  
He looked around as he huffed. His cell phone suddenly began to ring, saving a load of Indians from hearing several English curse words.  
  
"What do you want?" he yelled into the phone.  
  
"Go to dock 4. Now," said a voice.  
  
"Gotcha…" The young man ran to the nearby dock 4 and waited as someone disembarked.  
  
"Took you long enough!"  
  
The passenger reached the end of the stairs and walked over to meet his friend. His face was solemn.  
  
"Let's go, Duo. Something bad has happened. You know there had to be a reason for me calling you."  
  
"Yeah, yeah."  
  
Quatre looked at him with a frown. "The situation is more severe than I had known before… And I have yet to tell Relena."  
  
The two boys walked to a nearby plane that had just landed as well. They quickly rushed up the stairs and entered the cabin. A voice came over the plane's intercom.  
  
"Flight from Munich to Bombay completed. Preparations are being made for the flight to Auckland…"  
  
~~~  
  
Okay, that's 7. Nothing big, more exposition, but lots of foreshadowing… Anyway, email me at inrose@aminorglitch.com.  
  
Next chapter is gonna be big… 


	8. Memai

Highbridge   
  
By Cherry Flavored  
  
Chapter 8- Memai   
  
Disclaimer: don't own  
  
~~~  
  
"Ah-aahhhhhhh"  
  
A loud yawn could be heard all around the first floor of the near-deserted Romefeller mansion. A girl stretched her arms out to their farthest capacity before letting them flop to her sides lazily. She got up from her comfy position on the couch to head to the kitchen; a place she hoped still had the concealed box of pop tarts she had left in secret yesterday.  
  
After rummaging through some stuff, she found her prize.  
  
She grinned. "Nothing like blueberry goodness to wake you up in the middle of the day," she said happily.  
  
But as she stuffed her mouth with the sweet breakfast food, she noticed a red flashing light coming from the direction of the phone. After further investigation, she discovered she had a message on her answering machine.  
  
This was no good.  
  
She cautiously pressed the play button, fearful of whom would have her unlisted number and what would they want.  
  
A familiar voice echoed through the kitchen, and this wasn't exactly a voice she had been dying to hear.  
  
"Ms. Catalonia," said a calm, quiet voice, "A couple of dragons are calling you back home. But even though I must be their messenger, I must also explain how to get you there. Are you prepared to become a jester like myself?"  
  
Dorothy grimaced. She knew this time might come, just… not so soon. Not to mention, she didn't know she would have to work with him, of all people.  
  
She flipped her hair indifferently and headed to her bedroom. Now was the time to prepare.  
  
"I'll be waiting, Trowa Barton…"   
  
~~~  
  
"Mr. Ledger, boarding preparations have been made for your flight. Is there anything we can get for you before you leave?" asked a pleasant attendant.  
  
"A bible, please," asked Dulé Ledger in a pleading voice the young lady he was addressing didn't understand. So she less-than-eagerly left to comply with the young man's demands.  
  
The attendant return with a small Gideon bible from the front of the plane, and Dulé took it and closed his eyes. He tried to take a moment to think, but was interrupted by the roar of initial takeoff.  
  
~~~  
  
"Well, if it isn't Miss Queen of the World, right here on the plane with me," Duo said sarcastically as he entered the cockpit with Quatre. Duo looked over at his companion. "Should I ask for an autograph?"  
  
Relena smiled warmly. "Hello, Duo. It's a pleasure to see you after all this time."  
  
Duo smiled a very devilish smile. "It's a pleasure to see you too, especially when Sergeant Suicide isn't around to deathglare me away." Duo slid into the seat next to Relena and leaned in towards her. "So, what are you doing tonight?" he asked with a wink.  
  
Relena laughed. "I seem to remember Quatre telling me you have a girlfriend, Duo. What would she think?" Relena teased back, with both false shock and sarcasm evident in her voice.  
  
The three laughed as the plane took off, but Quatre's and Duo's laughter was unusually nervous, as the secret of Ashana's death remain buried inside them.  
  
~~~  
  
"We need Relena back now, Zechs. Should we call her?" Sally asked.  
  
"No, Noin already tried, but the shuttle must be in a dead area; no connection can reach her for now. I just don't know where she could be, though, because I don't think her plotted destination is anywhere near a large dead air zone," Zechs said.  
  
Sally suddenly looked worried. "Do you think something's wrong?"  
  
Zechs shook his head. "No, I don't think so. This always a way we can tell if she's alright. She has an alarm on her person at all times that would alert us to any danger she might be in. Even if the alarm couldn't transmit in a dead zone, which I think it can, we would hear it the second the shuttle left it," Zechs stated. "Anyway, Sally, we can't worry about her for now, so we need to be finding who did this and who they were working under, as soon as possible."  
  
Sally nodded. A flash went off and Zechs disappeared from her vid screen, leaving an eerie silence in the room, despite the fact that she wasn't alone.  
  
Sally sighed. She turned as a voice began to speak.   
  
"Barton's headed to South Africa. Catalonia's coming with him," came the flat voice of Wufei.  
  
"So she's on?" Sally asked. Wufei nodded. "Good. The more allies we have, the better. So what makes you so sure about this David what's-his-name in Johannesburg?"  
  
Wufei smirked. "You always have to question me, don't you?" The statement was more friendly than derogatory. "You lack trust in my judgment?"  
  
"No… I…" Sally tried to think of what to say. She became frustrated. "Dammit, Wufei, how do you always do this to me?!"   
  
Wufei shrugged his shoulders. "It's a talent."  
  
~~~  
  
Relena yawned loudly. She seemed a bit disoriented at first, but she soon came to her senses.  
  
She immediately blushed.  
  
Relena remembered the dream she had been having with a guilty smile on her face. She realized she hadn't wanted it to end at all, as embarrassed as it made her. It had involved Heero, herself, and a private space shuttle. She paused to reflect on the memory, but soon shook her head in resistance. She had NO business thinking about that, she was sure.  
  
Relena was slightly startled by the appearance of Duo, whose head popped up next to her right shoulder.  
  
"Yo, milady!" Duo said, tapping Relena on the nose. "I was just coming to wake you. We'll be landing in five minutes, so buckle up."  
  
Relena couldn't help but smile at the pilot, but her smile soon faded when the reality of what he said sank in. She would see Heero in a very short time, and be forced to explain the situation he was in. She didn't know what his reaction would be, and that worried her. She didn't want to take away his new life, either. She was torn in half.  
  
"Landing preparations have been made for touchdown in Auckland. Please fasten your seatbelts and remain seated," came a voice over the plane's PA system.  
  
~~~  
  
"Find the cosine of the answer you got in problem 12…" Yume read from his trigonometry book, his voice trailing off to a stop halfway through the problem. He let out a cry of frustration that made most of the people in the library turn and give him very angry looks.  
  
Yume blushed and ducked his head towards the table. He glanced up at Heero, who sat across the table from him, with a pleading look.  
  
"I can't do this…" he whined. His chin sank into the textbook lying on the table before him. "What did you get, Adam?"  
  
Yume felt a thump on the back of his head. "Yume, you won't learn anything if you keep getting the answers. It's amazing how someone can be so smart about all of these other things but hand him a math problem and he turns into a six year old," Sarah scolded him.   
  
Yume sighed and sat up, then leaned back in his uncomfortable wooden chair. "I know, I'm a big baby," he said, then suddenly arched an eyebrow at Sarah in realization. "You think I'm smart?" he asked in a completely different tone.  
  
Sarah rolled her eyes and hit him on the head again, attempting to hide a smile that was threatening to crawl up her face. "Not right now I don't! Now let me show you how to do this problem…" she said, leaning over and grabbing Yume's pencil.   
  
Heero laughed slightly under his breath, with an amused expression that he often wore when he was around the two people he was currently studying with. At first, he thought spending his study hall classes (which was valuable time Heero used to brood) with Yume and Sarah to be a bad idea. But, he found it was actually quite enjoyable, and made a habit of counseling the two on their homework when they were of need.  
  
Heero couldn't help hoping that he could stay like this, in peaceful happiness, for a long time.  
  
'But there's something missing, I think…' he thought.  
  
Heero's ponderings were interrupted by the sound of the bell ringing.   
  
~~~  
  
Relena stepped off the plane and took in the fresh air. Her stomach did flip-flops when she thought about the task she had, so she decided not to think for now; she would just breathe deeply and clear her mind.  
  
"Miss Relena, I think that you and Duo should take the rental car and get your positions secured; I'll take a taxi to my hotel and get things set up," Quatre said warmly.  
  
Relena nodded as Duo took her by the arm and lead her to the car, with Quatre's plane attendants behind them carrying the luggage. She slipped into the passenger side and Duo stepped behind the wheel. Relena waited for him to get going, but he didn't move. She looked over at Duo, who was looking at her expectantly.   
  
"This is going to be a short ride, Princess, but you still have to buckle up," Duo reminded.  
  
Relena nodded and did as she was told, the butterflies in her stomach rising again.  
  
~~~  
  
During Heero's fourth class hour, he was getting anxious. For reasons he couldn't explain, he didn't much like the history lesson he was having today, "Affects of the Eve Wars on today's global relations."  
  
The teacher seemed more annoying than ever; his classmates seemed more ignorant than ever; he just didn't like being there at all.  
  
"Can you name any major figures from the wars that are still in positions of power today?" the teacher asked. The class was silent. Heero knew why: most of the public known leaders from the wars were dead.   
  
A girl in the front row raised her hand timidly. The teacher acknowledged her. "Well, Relena Peacecraft is the current Vice Foreign Minister."  
  
Heero swallowed hard.  
  
The teacher nodded her head. "But now she goes by her adopted name, Darlian. Does anyone have any other thoughts?"   
  
A boy raised his hand. "Yeah, why is it she's the only person still living? I mean, Dermail? He's dead. Khusrenada? Dead. How is it a sixteen year old girl was kept alive?"  
  
Another girl raised her hand. "I think it is because she had extra protection due to her age."   
  
"Or maybe it's because her ideas weren't popular with the high up government, so her people thought she was going to be assassinated and they put her under extra guard."  
  
"I think she used body doubles so if any of them died, they wouldn't get the real one."  
  
Many ideas were passed around the class.   
  
The teacher spoke up. "Did any of you hear that during her rule in the Cinq Kingdom, she had protection from Gundam pilots? Many people believe that to be true."  
  
At this idea, the class quieted. A few people raised their hands to offer their opinions.   
  
Heero didn't like the way the conversation was going. Thoughts of the war were spinning in his head, making him dizzy. He put his head down, trying to block everything out.  
  
"Mr. Yurigashi, I know that you are not attempting to sleep during my lesson. Is there something you would like to add to our discussion?" She was trying to put him on the spot.   
  
Heero wiped a bead of sweat that had formed on his forehead. He spoke up, trying to clear his head. "I'm not very learned as to what Gundam pilots do in their free time, Mrs. Jones. I'm not quite sure what you want me to tell you."  
  
Some of the class snickered at the attitude in Heero's comment. Heero remained straight-faced.  
  
"You may sit down, Mr. Yurigashi," said the teacher, with annoyance in her tone.   
  
"Wow, the great Yurigashi has been stumped. So he is human!" called a boy from the back of the class.  
  
"That'll be enough, Mr. Dalton," the teacher amended.  
  
Heero clinched his teeth. 'If they only knew…' he thought. 'I could tell that kid things that would make him want to be sick for the rest of his life. If only…' His hands began to shake. 'There's nothing here for me… Why do I still tolerate people like these?'  
  
Heero was reaching his emotional boiling point. The last thing he needed was for his anger to go haywire. So he closed his eyes, and put his mind elsewhere.  
  
Relena would be proud.  
  
~~~  
  
As the bell rang, Yume watched his friend storm from the classroom. He rushed to catch up with him. Yume had never seen the guy like this; it might not be a very good sign.   
  
"Adam! Stop, wait for me!" he called. Heero turned around, and Yume saw his blue eyes flare with some strange emotion that Yume couldn't put his finger on. Whatever it was, it was scary. But Yume wouldn't be perturbed. He continued toward him.  
  
"Listen, you can't pay attention to people like that; they're just jealous," he said.  
  
Heero looked away. He wasn't in the mood to talk; he was in the mood to leave. So, he headed for the front door determinedly.   
  
Yume barely noticed Sarah coming up behind him until it was too late. He blushed at the site of her.  
  
"Yume, how's it going? Hey, what's with Godzilla up there? He looks pissed off," she noted as they both headed off to follow him.  
  
"You know that moron Dalton in our second period class? He said something to Adam," Yume explained.  
  
Heero stopped and raked a hand through his hair with frustration. "It wasn't that kid, okay?! It's this whole damn place; I just don't belong here," he snapped, heading for the door again.  
  
Yume and Sarah exchanged nervous looks.  
  
~~~  
  
Relena watched Duo head towards the building with a gleeful pep in his step, but Relena could see through him. He was nervous; she picked up on that. His happiness seemed to be forced. He was hiding something.  
  
Duo turned around to see if she was going to follow, but her look indicated that she would not be joining him just yet. She was still sitting in the car, and didn't much want to get out. But the second she did, she didn't regret it, because she got her first glimpse of the school building Heero had been staying at for all this time.  
  
"Wow…" she said, with not so much of a tone of awe, but impression. She examined the large front lawn, and while doing so spotted a bench she deemed perfect to rest at until Duo returned.  
  
She walked to the large elm tree that kindly shaded the area around her bench, noting that shade wasn't needed at all on this cloudy day. She sat down, straitening her clothes on instinct, until she remembered that she wasn't wearing her diplomatic uniform or one of her long ball gowns. Today she was clad inconspicuously, wearing a short, white skirt that had small cherry blossom patterns stitched along the bottom and a light pink long sleeve shirt. The collar on her shirt was pulled out and she left a button or two undone at the top in her rush to change into less formal attire. Her hair was completely down, and she held it in front of her face a bit as to hide her easily recognizable features.   
  
She sighed as she looked into the sunless sky. "It's going to rain today," she said to herself.  
  
~~~  
  
Yume caught up to his friend quickly, just as he was jerking the doors open. He noted that they were the first ones to make it outside for lunch period, and by the looks of it, they would be some of the only ones. The sky was gray, and promised rain to any person that dared to question it. Yume was about to mention the coming weather to Sarah, but stopped as he heard a small pile of books slam onto the hard concrete.  
  
Yume looked to his left to see Heero standing, his hands book-free and completely frozen. His eyes had glazed over and Yume shivered when he looked into them. He also noticed that Heero had dropped his heavy textbooks onto his own feet and didn't seem to care.   
  
"Hey man, what's wrong with you?" he asked.  
  
Heero didn't say a word.  
  
~~~  
  
There she was. She was sitting on his bench, at his school. Heero was at a loss for words. A surge of pain washed over him as he looked at her. She could not see him, and he was grateful for that fact, because he just wanted to look at her for a little bit longer. Just stay in the moment and let time consume him.  
  
That is, until Yume spoke up. "Hey man, what's wrong with you?"  
  
He saw… no, he felt her head turn towards him. He felt her eyes upon him, filled with surprise and… other emotions.  
  
At that point, Heero couldn't stop himself. He ran to her as fast as his body could carry him.  
  
~~~  
  
Relena didn't know what to think. She had been here for only minutes, and she already finds him. She sat there in shock, seeing him suddenly begin to move quickly. To her, he was coming towards her.   
  
Her stomach did a nice flip flop as she stood to meet him.  
  
~~~  
  
He reached her, still speechless, with his two companions in tow. She walked towards him, seemingly as stunned as he was. His mind was racing, until leaned towards him, and spoke softly.  
  
"Heero."  
  
He looked at her in the eyes, trying to hide everything that was going through his head at the moment. He reached out and touched the golden hair that hung over her face, obscuring her features.  
  
Relena closed her eyes, and let the moment sink in.  
  
Then, Heero came to his senses. He quickly retracted his hand, and Yume, standing with Sarah a yard or two away, was sure that he saw a small splashed of red crawl up Heero's face. Heero realized what Relena had just said, and open his mouth to explain. She already knew what he had to say, though.  
  
"I know, I know," she said with a small smile. She spoke up a little bit, so Heero's friends could hear. "It's good to see you again, Adam."  
  
He gave her a questioning look. 'How does she know this?' he thought. 'More importantly…'  
  
"Why are you here?" he blurted out.  
  
Relena smiled and looked towards the school building wistfully. She looked back at him and breathed in deeply.  
  
"There's… a problem," she said, and then lowered her voice. "It concerns this place… and you."  
  
Heero immediately switched modes. "You are here alone?" he asked.  
  
Relena shook her head. She glanced over at Heero's friends, worried that they would hear. She glanced back at Heero and held up her hand, forming a peace sign.  
  
'Duo…' Heero thought, recognizing Relena's gesture. But there was more. She added her middle and pinky fingers up on her hand.   
  
'And Quatre…' Heero nodded, showing he understood. Relena was scared he might blow his top.  
  
Heero gritted his teeth, holding back any emotion he might be feeling. There was trouble, and it had to do with him and his new home. There were his friends; the only two people that had befriended him might end up with their lives becoming far more complicated than they should be. Finally, there was Relena. On one hand, she had betrayed his secret, and now there was not one, but three Gundam pilots haunting this innocent place. On the other hand… she was there.   
  
Relena was with him.  
  
She brought some possibly terrible information.  
  
Relena was with him.  
  
Heero felt dizzy.   
  
~End of chapter 8.   
  
Ai-ya! It's been awhile, no? Ah well, I got off my lazy tail and did something. This is overwhelming! School's gonna start again before I finish this! grrrrrrr  
  
Email comments to inrose@aminorglitch.com  
  
Lots and lots and lots of love,  
  
-Cherry 


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